Combined, the four airports — JFK, LaGuardia, Newark Liberty and Newburgh/Stewart — handled 111.6 million passengers in 2013. That was up over the 109.4 million combined passengers that flew through the four airports in 2012 and eclipsed the 2007 record of 109.4 million.

Individually, JFK handled about 50 million passengers in 2013 while Newark Liberty saw about 34 million, according to The Associated Press. The total at LaGuardia was about 27 million and Newburgh/Stewart's total came in at about 320,000.

Three other passenger records were eclipsed at the airports run by the Port Authority.

JFK set new annual records for both the most overall passengers and the most international passengers (about 26 million). LaGuardia Airport set its full-year record for international passengers, tallying about 1.6 million.

"While the effects of the recession linger for far too many people, we are pleased at the continued growth in passengers at our airports, which means great news on a host of related fronts, but especially for direct and indirect job creation, and our regional economy," Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye says in a release touting the records.

The Port Authority also began running the airport in Atlantic City earlier this year. That airport will be factored into the agency's full-year passenger tallies from 2014 onward.

The strong numbers at the New York City-area airports are part of a trend of improving numbers at many airports across North America. At many airports, passenger numbers have been down or flat since the economy soured in 2008.

Editor's note: Check back at Today in the Sky this week for other airports that had a record 2013. I'll highlight one additional record-setting airport each day this week.